Cinderlla Man: Something to Believe In

Cinderella Man is a good movie. It is reminiscent of the American films from the golden age of American cinema that leave you feeling good inside. Cinderella Man is about overcoming obstacles and fighting for your beliefs. Without further research I cannot say that James J. Braddock was actually a man of as strong convictions as portrayed in the movie. Men of conviction are extremely rarely simply because the price of conviction is too high for most men. Society often rewards those who do the best at recycling at recycling convention. Beautiful women for example are not typically attracted to strong, independent men. Sure, they claim to like men of confidence. But, in reality beautiful women like most other elements of society are most confortable with the familiar, the nondescript, which essentially means weaklings.

To the extent that one is independent in his thinking, which a man of conviction is, the price is typically isolation and an inability to keep a "regular" job. And, it is not always a question of some esoteric conviction like a firm belief in orgies, it could be quite rational--not that orgies are necessarily irrational, but they are not exactly a conventional practice. It could be something as simple wanting to work hard to promote the company that you work for.

The convictions of hard work and decency--not the hollow buzz words that politicians bandy about during a campaign but rarely believe in and quickly forget about after the campaigning circus is over--but real work like the desire to present a knowledgeable, compassionate, competent employee to customers. That kind of conviction very often gets you fired. You are far more likely to be "successful" in the conventional sense if you simply go along with things and accept a general decay in competence, intelligence, and ability despite the bad impression such behavior gives to customers and others. I am speaking from experience here. I know how difficult it is to maintain a conviction, and the more rational the conviction, the more antagonistic people will tend to be toward it. Just shrug, laugh it off, and don't think to carefully about anything. That kind of conviction will make you more money than any of that misleading propaganda that parents, teachers, coaches, and just about everyone else are so quick to promote such as "all you need a dream and the desire to work hard to make it." Bullshit! First, you have to define what "making it" means. Usually it means to make a lot of money. That is the conventional sense. It is the sense against which most people will measure you: girls, banks, employers, friends, etc. How much money do you make? That is the big question. And, to make a lot of money in most circumstances means making those with the power to help you feel good. Again, there is nothing inherently wrong with this decision so long as you are honest about yourself and about what you are doing. Personally it disgusts me when people try to pretend that they are so selfless in what they do and think when in reality they are grotesquely self-serving; the charity is just a sham. But, the sham is really what rules in society. Wearing the mask. Deception. That is the true secret of "making it." Learning how to make your way in society while never letting anyone know what you really think despite the fact that almost everyone tells you to be honest and truthful. What they really mean is that you should be honest and truthful, but they can lie, cheat and steal at whim and it is all good because you shouldn't take things so seriously; and in being 'honest' or 'truthful' they mean tell us what we want to hear. That is how it works.

My martial arts teacher called it "the human racket." And, he was ever so right. Proof? When was the last time that you told someone who mattered: a boss, a parent, a lover what you really felt? And, if you did, what was the result? Probably disaster. I cannot count the number of times some lazy boss told me "we have an open door policy so that you can feel free to give us your honest opinion." Yeah, right. Translation: we have an open door policy alright so that we can find out whom we don't like and fire him. I am not talking about going around complaining to people as an example of truthfulness. Nobody likes that kind of a drag on life. I am talking about tactful honesty where you feel free to tell someone that you feel mistreated for example, and what is more the person actually take an interest in what you say. Perhaps he even makes an effort to do something about. Hardy, har, har. Fat chance. Most of the time if you try to tell someone that you feel mistreated, she looks at you like you are from Alpha Centuri--that is a galaxy far, far away.

Still think that society is not based on deception? Well, what about the propaganda on the legal system, the place where "justice" is supposed to be served? Since when was "justice ever really served in a courtroom? So, why not just call it what it is? It is not the justice system. It is simply a system of arbitration that is almost always a disaster for everyone involved--except lawyers and judges--and very often those who are the most decent and rational are the biggest losers. These are just a few of the things that make holding a conviction very difficult, and it is why the philosophy of war and self-defense are good ways to protect your convictions--and your sanity.

Movies like Cinderella Man are rare on the contemporary scene. It is reminiscent of the Classic movies especially American movies that had a wholesome, feel-good quality to them. It was an enlightened quality and it was commonplace in movies like High Noon, The Magnificent Seven, Man of the Thousand Faces, Angels with Dirty Faces, Captain Blood, The Sea Hawk, Dr. No, Goldfinger, From Russia with Love, and so many others.

Cinderella Man does something else that is quite understandable given the current cultural and intellectual climate. It makes you wonder is it really worth it to fight for something that you believe in? LSV

Jobs and Parents

It is quite remarkable how similar jobs and parents are. They both seem to set unreasonable expectations on those whose power is limited. They both seem to encourage phoniness. They both seem to perpetuate bad behaviors. Most of all they both seem to promote an uncooperative sentiment.

If one has a lifetime vested in society as it is, then these assertions would seem harsh and negative, or at least that is what they would be called. Or, worse still anyone with the courage to state them would be called angry and hateful as if these very real human emotions are somehow inhuman. It goes without saying that anger and hatred in excess, like anything else, are bad. On the other hand, they most certainly have their purposes most particularly when it comes to self-defense and combat. Rage and hatred at an attacker for example gives one the much needed power to launch a pre-emptive attack if possible, or to respond effectively and brutally when necessary to repel an unprovoked act of violence. These are uncomfortable things, but many things in this life with Man are uncomfortable. In fact, life among Man is extraordinarily difficult especially it seems in America where few desire to cooperate even a little and even when it makes everything better for all concerned. It is a common practice to smear uncomfortable things in order to dismiss them out of hand; but uncomfortable or not, life must be dealt with. Just because some are hardheaded about evading unpleasantness with superficiality, does not make reality disappear. Wishes do not get things done, action does. In order to properly act given the way that the world is, one must have a clear mind and a clear conscience. Sometimes, this is not always easy to do when one is also generally penalized for strong convictions.

What happens to those for whom understanding and truth are the dominant values of life? These people become outsiders, and no matter how reasonable their viewpoints are, they will remain outsiders. This can be a frustrating experience especially if one genuinely likes and appreciates the enlightenment that comes with sharing important ideas with others. The rift between such people and the rest of society seems to grow more and more prominent with each passing day and no other areas paint the rift with deeper crevices than jobs and parents.

Jobs and parents build insurmountable walls for anyone both young and old that is sensitive, value-oriented, or intellectual. It is even worse for men because men are still supposed to be tough. And, one should be tough, not for all of the exploitative reasons that people often suggest. One should be tough for one's own sake to protect the sensitivity, intelligence, value, and strength that one attempts to build throughout life despite the penalties for trying to do so. For if you have any of these magnificent traits, you will be a stranger in your own land even if you do not want to be. You will be unable to bridge the lacuna formed through so many years that people spend escaping into superficiality.

Jobs build these walls in their unreasonable expectations. I have been told for example that I should "smile" more, as if smiling is some indication that everything is alright. Interestingly enough, the kinds of people who say such things rarely take the positive action to give you something to smile about. For you see, their chastisement toward you is supposed to be enough thereby putting the burden of action on someone else's shoulders. What is even more perplexing is the fact that jobs rarely give you something to smile about. Jobs never pay enough. Managers always expect everything short of outright slavery. Recognition and encouragement for a job well done is sparse. And, few people in management ever provide any kind of encouragement except fear and intimidation. That is still how jobs get people to perform. Managers will tell their people to "ask questions if you do not understand something." And, when someone does ask questions he is reprimanded for asking to many questions or for "wanting things in black and white." Therefore, if one does not ask questions to better understand a job's basic functions, performance will suffer. And, you will get in trouble for that too. Thus, you are damned if you do and damned if you don't. From this steaming heap success is supposed to miraculously rise. And, when it does not--as it cannot--YOU are to blame. You are the stupid, and incompetent one. Now if one follows this logic, one is lead straight to the bar or the psychiatrist's couch. Is this supposed to be the "Great Society" about which so many people would give their lives to pursue? I think not.

Always bear in mind that your resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing--Abraham Lincoln.

Let us say for example that you believe in this quote and support the sentiment that it implies. What position will that give you in this society? More often than not, you will feel more like public enemy number one than Osama Bin Laden does. All of the claims to the contrary notwithstanding, such positive attitudes are quite foreign in most jobs. Most jobs are a collection of highly neurotic and insincere people that look at such positive thinking as strange and bizarre. What will happen for example if you come to work every day with a feeling of loyalty toward your company because you believe that the company generally treats its employees well? You will quickly find yourself isolated in this sentiment. While you work diligently others will play with toy guns and get all of the promotions and accolades.

Let us say for example as a child or adolescent you also believe in the sentiment that President Lincoln expressed. More often than not your parents will tell you to get your head out of the clouds or show indifference towards your belief. Friends will often laugh at you as strange and out of place. Essentially, anytime that you advocate a sensible outlook in life, one that will lift you higher and take you further in life, you will be isolated. What do you do to protect yourself against this onslaught? What do you do to maintain a healthy outlook and continue the struggle against the the stone-headed monster of mindless conformity?

If you couple the extreme alienation that one feels in being serious and substantive in an ocean of banality with talent, and a commitment to fitness, the alienation is compounded exponentially. The gap widens between the callous and the careful, between the value-phobic and the value-driven. What do you do? Whine? Cry? Draw little yellow "smiley" faces? These are not viable options for rational adults least of all for men of strength. So what is the solution? Run away? It is very tempting when one thinks of concepts like liberty, justice, and loyalty while others laugh them away in the grunt-like laughs of brutes. The alienation one feels as a result of the cultural juggernaut of superficiality makes the point of Atlas Shrugged all the more poignant. But, is it feasible to run away? Certainly to become emotionally and psychologically invested in such environments makes no sense at all. However, to run away means to give up on one's own life. It is understandable, but not logical.





Diligence will get your fired these days. Diligence tends not to garner reward, but contempt of one form or another. This is particularly shocking in the workplace where one would expect a certain modicum of rationality based on the desire to make a profit.



It is really quite amazing how similar jobs are to parents. Both tend to be insincere and inconsistent. Companies tout the importance of customer service, while failing to properly train their employees to provide that customer service, or by hiring people whose overall competence is quite low to provide customer service implying that the view of customer service is also quite low. Parents slam their children with guilt and pressure to "perform," impress, and lie while touting the importance of honesty, integrity, and all of that other mother jazz. Company representatives tell a customer "that is not my department" and bounce customers around ad infinitum while playing "cool" music or recordings that say "your call may be monitored for quality assurance." Consequently a customer never gets a definite answer to his question, but I suppose the low level of quality there is somehow overlooked. On the other hand, Parents also communicate mixed messages. They spend an inordinate amount of time teaching one to be "polite" even to obnoxious people, to pretend to like someone even if one feels justifiable hatred for the person. Even the concept of hate itself is made to be taboo even though it is very human and can never be expunged. Hate is strongly tied to a sense of justice and dignity. This creates an unexpected result, instead of people feeling less hatred, hatred becomes the undercurrent of human emotion. Now in this mix of absurdity one is supposed to lead a "healthy," "productive" life, both of these notions of course defined in terms of precepts that do not always make sense in themselves. For example, to fit in one is supposed to drink beer, eat pizza, and be funny, yet none of these always lead to a "healthy" life or increased productivity.






People are mentally disturbed. They expect the impossible and when one does not deliver one is made to feel small in more ways than one: a failure, a moron, a loser, and in this era of humiliation, these are the most common messages one gets. Now this is extremely difficult for any reasonably well-adjusted adult to deal with, how the can a child be expected to cope with such instability? Compound that with dysfunctional families, and it is a wonder that anyone can make it through this life or would want to.





Strength and reason seem to be the only saving graces. One must live for himself and cast aside all of the foolish trivialities that present-day society seems determined to foist upon individuals even those who do not want them. One must learn to live somewhat detached from irrationality--which in practical terms represents a huge part of life among humans--and in order to do that one needs to be rational, to follow rational principles, principles that make common sense regardless of what others think. One must get one's sense of self and in some ways worth from those principles and not from test scores, bank accounts, job promotions, or parental approval. To do that, to maintain that level of independence requires the value of strength. But, strength is not enough, because this cultural juggernaut of absurdity is so vast and so pervasive, that it will attempt to smother individuality and suffocate one's recognition of truth in order to create just another unthinking conformist. Therefore, one must be prepared and willing to combat the attacks on one's intellectual navigational system that reason, intelligence, and common sense represent. For these values allow one to realize one's potential, as Plato once put it, to cultivate one's talent to the highest level possible. In other words, one needs that navigational system to figure out existence, to integrate reality as Ayn Rand often wrote. One needs the bearings of common sense and reason to arrive at the truth, not the truth that society peddles to facilitate its own conventions, but objective truth and there is such a thing. Objective truth is the thing that dictates for example how organisms can succeed on this earth. Objective truth is the truth that determines under what conditions one can learn, develop strength, and bolster one's character. Objective truth determines that bullets when fired from a gun at the head will kill. All of the laughter and smart-ass remarks to the contrary will not change this fact.









Objective truth determines that if one does not know how to spell or perform basic arithmetical functions, one will not be able to perform well in job settings. Objective truth determines that if one's family life is tumultuous, one will perform poorly in almost all areas even those areas that parents make such a big deal about like school. Therefore, when a parent propagandizes their children in the importance of formal schooling while making the home environment a living hell or by taking no interest in a child's development, they behave no differently than executive managers who talk about "best practices" or making things "open" "transparent" and "frictionless," while taking no concrete steps to implement any of these things. These are the kinds of things that make modern life more like the theatre of the absurd than what life is supposed to be: exciting, adventurous, and enjoyable. And, since life does tend to be absurd, rather than mindlessly "celebrating" the chaos, it seem far more logical to adopt a philosophy of self-defense that can allow one to embrace one's rational values, enjoy life to some extent, while maintaining at least a certain modicum of dignity and principled integrity. LSV